Self-Respect and Pride: Improving Resilience in the Tribe

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that substance use among American Indian and Alaska Native
(AI/AN) youth is significantly above the national average, particularly of 8th graders (1). Earlier onset of use is associated with earlier onset of abuse, making
prevention efforts with AI/AN youth imperative (2). Middle school is a trying time
when individuals experience multiple transitions. Developing coping skills and approaches
to stress management are essential tools for at-risk youth during this period (3).
For the past three years, Rocky Mountain College (RMC) in Billings, Montana has been
collaborating with Little Big Horn College (LBHC) in Crow Agency, Montana on a voluntary
after school substance abuse prevention program at a middle school on the Crow reservation.
With new investigative staff, this iteration of the project seeks to further develop
relations between the program team and tribal members in order to create an intervention
better suited to fit the needs of the community. While input from tribal members has
been a part of the project since its inception, we now seek to create and utilize
a community advisory board in order to ensure that the program better meets the desires
of the community in which it is situated, an approach known as community based participatory
research (CBPR). Such an approach has been shown to be effective in developing interventions
that produce positive results, particularly when working in AI/AN communities (4),
since nationally developed programs may not take cultural specificity into account
(5). While substance abuse prevention will most likely remain an important component
of the project, in depth community work may reveal a desire for the program to be
embedded in a larger effort to promote physical and emotional health, and this project
would enable the researchers to cater the program to the needs of the people it impacts
most.

Specific Aims

Create a community advisory board of tribal elders and families of the middle school
youth in Pryor;

Conduct focus groups with advisory board members over the summer of 2017 to develop
2017-2018 after-school program, integrating Crow culture and important traditions
throughout;

Continue collaboration between RMC and LBHC faculty and students; and

Develop a research question for the program to address for future years of this project.